The Russian Mafia has its origins in the Brezhev-era Soviet Union. It was a time of great corruption and scarcity of many goods. The combination of those factors promoted the growth of organized crime. After all, scarcity is profit waiting to happen for anyone who can provide goods, and corruption can allow goods to be acquired by any means. During this time, criminals called "thieves in law" (vory y zakone) provided scarce goods to those who were willing and able to pay premium prices. However, they still kept a low profile, as flagrant displays of their new wealth could land them in a gulag.

In the 1970s, people began referring to the criminal enterprises in the USSR as mafia, due to their close associations with Communist party members in positions of authority. Bribery was commonplace. Unlike typical mafias, the Russian mafia gangs weren't violent during this time, relying instead on their government contacts to provide any needed violence on their behalf. During the 1980s, this changed as the gangs acquired weapons and became more violent in their own rights. As Communism fell into decline and the Soviet Union began to soften many of its positions in the later half of the 1980s, the mafia's power increased. Ex-KGB members and soldiers began offering their assistance to mafia gangs. In 1989, the mafia's reach expanded as some of its members immigrated to other countries, joining Russian communities in New York, Paris, London, and Israel. By 1991, there were over 700 gangs operating in the Soviet Union, mostly organized by family ties or ethnicity. After the fall of Communism and the USSR, the gangs became increasingly powerful, violent, and widespread.

An exact time is difficult to nail down, but the rise is accredited to the 1990's just after the fall of the Soviet Union. A lot of the former government workers suddenly found themselves out of work. One natural escalation of this situation was the formation of organized crime.